Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has been given the sort of start to a party conference political leaders usually only dream of.

As Labour continued to suffer from the fallout from the fuel crisis, Mr Kennedy travelled to the Bournemouth rally with the best opinion poll showing for his party for five years.

If the latest brace of polls were reflected at a general election, the Lib Dems would hold the balance of power in the Commons.

The prime minister would probably be calling Mr Kennedy into Downing Street to offer him all sorts of deals - seats in cabinet and so on - in exchange for his support.

And, for the first time, the Lib Dems' dream goal of electoral reform would be a near certainty as part of those deals.

So, Mr Kennedy could be forgiven for being more upbeat and optimistic than ever at this year's conference.

And there is little doubt that the party's current standing will help give him a relatively easy ride at the week-long rally.

But Mr Kennedy is long enough in the tooth to know better than to trust one weekend's-worth of polls in the wake of events such as those which have rocked Tony Blair's government.

He will be heartened the figures suggest that, when it comes to kicking the government, voters will turn to his party almost as easily as to the opposition.

Party darling

That is his great task between now and the next general election and the polls suggest he is some way towards achieving it.

But even he was quick to accept that the latest polls could just be a blip. And he continues to insist on being realistic by refusing to make exaggerated claims about winning the next election.

But Charlie has more to smile about than just a couple of polls - it is beginning to look as though he really has become his party's darling.

There were none of the expected challenges to his radical, tax-and-spend election manifesto pledges when he answered questions from delegates from the conference floor.

And he even escaped a mauling when he walked into the lion's den of a fringe meeting organised by the New Radicalism group entitled "Liberal Democracy is a radical alternative to Blairism."

The meeting was expected to provide the best conference platform for an assault on the informal deal between the government and the Lib Dems.

Mythical status

As it turned out, Mr Kennedy was told by GLA candidate Siobhan Vitelli that the deal should be abandoned at that the party should offer its own clear, radical identity.

But he notably played down the deal and insisted the Joint Consultative Committee - on which Lib Dem MPs discuss constitutional issues with ministers - had been given a "mythical status" it did not deserve.

When asked what the JCC did, he told the meeting he often answered "not a lot".

After a shaky start as leader, Mr Kennedy's second party conference in the job looks like it may be a huge success for him.

There is still plenty of time for dissent and issue such as the tax-raising manifesto and the relationship with Labour could still hit him.

But his first day at the seaside was about as good as it could get. The sun even shone.